If you could upgrade your conference by getting rid of the weakest team(s), who would you drop

[Capt. America]

and what other team(s) would you replace them with if you could? Remember, this is for football only, so I don't give a damn how well your girls' volleyball team does in your conference.

I'll go first with my conference. For example, in the Big 10 I would drop Indiana and pick up either Pitt, WV, ND, or Mizzou. (To keep the league centralized in the Midwest)

Suggestions for others: SEC: drop Vandy or KY, and pick up Clemson.
Big 12: drop Iowa State and Baylor, pick up TCU/Nevada/Utah/Colo State.
Big East: Drop Syracuse, add Penn State, VA, VT, WV.
Pac 10 is a pretty even conference (historically), so no changes unless they wanted to add Boise/Utah.
ACC: Drop Duke, NC, NC State, pick up SC, UGA or UF.

[madinmaryland]

1. Stop bogarting that joint! Pass it around!

Those are some bizarre thoughts there, my friend.

[Capt. America]

2. (cough) (cough) (cough) When I first met you didn't realize...

[fishwax]

3. This is a fun question

For my conference, the Big 12, I would drop Baylor and Iowa State (though I like the Cyclones); I'd replace Baylor with Arkansas in the south division (a good choice geographically, and also re-establishes some great rivalries, especially UT-Arkansas). In the north, I'd replace ISU with CSU (because I like CSU and it makes sense geographically) or Iowa (I know they wouldn't leave the Big 10, but I assume I can make them). Maybe Utah for the media market. Another alternative would be to drop Baylor and Iowa State and add Arizona and Arizona State (and realign the divisions within the conference).

My Suggestions for others:
SEC: Drop Vandy and Mississippi State for Georgia Tech (East) and Houston (West)--I know Houston wouldn't be able to compete right away, but they'd push the conference west into one of the biggest media markets not yet covered by a BCS conference, without a team being isolated (as Texas would be).

ACC: Drop Duke and Wake Forest and add South Florida to the Coastal Conference and Rutgers to the Atlantic

Big East: The Big East has been pretty balanced since the last realignment. I suppose Syracuse has been the least impressive, and South Florida is out of place geographically. Add Notre Dame--or, if you want to *raise* the level of football in the conference, Penn State.

Big 10: Drop Indiana, and add Pittsburgh and Cincinnati

Pac 10: I don't agree that the conference is historically balanced--USC has dominated, and UCLA and Washington have picked up most of what's left. After those three schools (which have, between them, at least a share of all but 6 conference titles in the last 50 years) Stanford has the most conference titles, and they've only got four. But they are very balanced geographically, and it would be a shame to break them up. Still, if the plan is to be brutal in trying to improve the product on the field, drop Washington State and Arizona and add Colorado and Boise State.

[Onceuponalife]

4. We'll take Boise State

but for the love of Pete, get rid of that godawful blue field!! You can't see the goddamn football against that background!!

[Capt. America]

5. I like your choices and your rationale. Let me clarify what I meant about the Pac-10 being balanced.

In some conferences there are clear, consistent losers that have no business being with the other teams (e.g. Iowa State, Indiana, etc.). I agree with you that USC has dominated the PAC-10; however, the "lesser" teams (AZ, WSU) have brief flashes of moderate success and do not consistently look like they have no business being in the same league. I can't say the same for some other leagues.

[joeybee12]

7. You are right about the Pac-10...even WSU, which now stinks, made

it to the Rose Bowl a few times not so long ago.

[BOSSHOG]

16. I long for the good old days of the SWC

Arkansas is a better fit for the Big 12 then the SEC, but whatcha gonna do?

[brendan120678]

6. West Virginia is already in the Big East....

And VaTech used to be, but bailed for the ACC.

[Capt. America]

10. oops, my bad

[El Supremo]

8. Big 12:

Drop Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Add TCU, SMU, Rice, Houston and maybe Arkansas if it gets any better.

:evilgrin:

[Capt. America]

9. Why would you get rid of OU? That's the best thing going for a UT rivalry. RR Shootout makes

national attention.

[El Supremo]

12. We've always had the Texas OU game every year.

I guess I need to explain all my jokes.

What teams would there be left in my scenario? Think some defunct conference that I grew up with.

[Capt. America]

19. Ah yes, the Southwest conference. You have mentioned that before.

[PVnRT]

11. I would dump Penn State and re-centralize to where the Big 10 was, historically

My candidates would be:

Notre Dame
Ohio University
University of Cincinnati
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Iowa State

If Illinois State or Indiana State ever went FBS (it won't happen, they both suck), I'd add them to the list.

[joeybee12]

14. Penn State wanted in solely because Joe paterno wanted to play

in the Rose Bowl before he died.

[LisaM]

17. JoPa thought he was going to own the Big Ten

Boy was he in for a surprise.

[joeybee12]

21. Yup...maybe he should take the Bobby Bowden route...

Penn state isn't stinking it up like FSU, but he's obviously not in charge.

[LisaM]

13. Ohio State

Tired of them dragging us down.

[TZ]

15. Rich Rod is that you?

:rofl:

[madinmaryland]

18. Heh! There were six other Big Ten teams that dragged you down this year!!

:D

You must be longing for the good-old days of Lloyd Carr!!!!

:rofl:

[Capt. America]

20. At least LLLLLoyd Carr was a gentleman.

[GaYellowDawg]

22. OK, here goes..

Upgrading the SEC:

Drop Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the SEC East. Drop Mississippi State in the West. Pick up Florida State, Clemson, and Georgia Tech. Realign the conference as follows:

East:
Clemson
Florida
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Tennessee
South Carolina

West:
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida State
LSU
Ole Miss

[Capt. America]

23. I like your picks. That would be a badass conference.

[SteelPenguin]

24. Upgrading the Big East

Ok well since we're passing the bowl around... I'd want to strengthen the Big East but keep it geographically in the Northeast.

I'd lose USF. I understand the whole "we need a Florida team" but I'd rather have it be happy in the Northeast. The Pac-10 doesn't 'need' a Florida team.

Leaving 7 teams for now. I'd want to expand up to 12 to have 2 divisions and an official playoff game. So need 5 more teams.

Penn State and Boston College are more obvious picks. Avoiding the non-BCS conferences as much as possible is tough while keeping it solidly regional. Notre Dame is already in for basketball, so bring them along (since we're smoking the good stuff here). Navy traditionally plays the Big East alot, and Marshall has a good history of program and a rivalry of sorts with West Virginia.

Regionally these divisions would be cut like this, but would probably need to be shuffled a little bit. Not too week a conference with half the teams having been nationally ranked at some point this year, a few of them in the top 10. Plus they'd actually have fewer conference games this way and could therefore have more out of conference games scheduled with other major conferences, which would help them more.

Cincinnati
Louisville
Marshall
Notre Dame
Pittsburgh
West Virginia

Boston College
Connecticut
Navy
Penn State
Rutgers
Syracuse

[brendan120678]

25. I like your ideas for the Big East there.

I really like the idea of having Navy as a member. However, I think you should dump Boston College - they're a bunch of asses there for bailing on the Big East already.

[Capt. America]

27. I like your ideas, but Marshall and Navy may be a stretch.

[SteelPenguin]

29. Yeah not sure what else to do though

I would want to keep it regional, but then we're kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Buffalo? Temple?... Marshall I think has a better 'name' behind it. Navy at least has tradition, even if they're not consistently good. Otherwise what else is there in New England, New York

The only other thing would be to poach Maryland from the ACC or Ohio State from the Big 10 and I don't see either of those as viable, even smoking weed. People seem to want to get rid of Kentucky from the SEC so could pull that in and they could play Louisville and Cinncinnati regularly.

[Capt. America]

30. Sure. KY, VA, VT, MD all good options.

[RT Atlanta]

26. SEC

I start by saying I like Vandy a lot, and have a lot of family & friends who graduated from there.

REMOVE the following from the SEC:

Vandy - not competitive on a regular basis, although a really good school otherwise (Nashvegas is a lot of fun).

Arkansas - too far West; move them somewhere else.

Kentucky - too far North.

ADD the following:

Clemson

Ga Tech (former SEC member, but wimped out years ago)

FSU Criminoles - had the opportunity to join in the early 1990s, but Bowden didnt want to play Auburn and Alabama every year.

[Capt. America]

28. +1 good picks